


forever if you want me to stay

by RowboatCop



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Coulson must be really really tired, Coulson reassures her, Cuddling, F/M, Kissing, Mutual comforting, Sexual Content, Skoulson feels, Skye's scared of finding out all these answers, post-2x07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-14
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-25 09:50:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2617469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RowboatCop/pseuds/RowboatCop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post 2x07 "The Writing on the Wall" (but before the scene of Skye working in Coulson's office and getting harassed by Ward).</p>
<p>Coulson knows that today was hard for Skye, and he feels the need to check up on her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	forever if you want me to stay

**Author's Note:**

> Title because Bill Withers. (And I suck at titles, seriously.)
> 
> And Skye worrying about her alien-ness feels.

Coulson knocks twice with his left hand, his right already grasping the doorknob as he stands in the hallway.

“Come in,” Skye calls through the door, but he pauses — almost draws back his hand. “Hello?”

He pushes the door open and steps inside, awkward and uncomfortable. This is the first time he’s been in her bunk at the Playground, and it’s strange because her bunk on the Bus wasn’t exactly unfamiliar to him. (Which is still strange in a way he chooses not to think about often, given that he’s never been inside anyone else’s bunk.)

Skye is seated cross legged on her bed, staring down at a tablet that goes dark as she looks up at him. He swallows.

“Hi.”

“You’re not here to throw me in a cell again, are you?”

The words are frosty, but her tone isn’t. It’s almost playful, and it bugs him that she’s not more upset.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“Is that what you came here to say?”

Her tone confuses him. He can’t tell if she’s upset or what’s going on in her head at all, and he fidgets a little under her gaze.

“Partly. I came to check on you. Today was...it was hard for you. I know that.”

“It was,” she agrees.

“I know it was already difficult going against May’s orders, and that I…”

“You were sort of scary.” Her face is all apology, as though she regrets saying it at all, and he takes a step back to give her as much space as she needs. As much as he wants to get close to her — he’s always had a drive to be near her — he’s too aware of the fact that it’s probably not what _she_ needs right now. He’s still amazed that she’s allowed him as close as she has since he caved and told her _everything_ ; he definitely doesn’t deserve it.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t —”

“I know.” She shakes her head, as though chastising him for being sorry, and stretches a hand towards him. “Come here, Coulson.”

“If you need space —”

“I need you to come here. Please.”

So he does. It takes five steps to bring him to the edge of her bed, and she scootches backwards a little to make room for him to sit.

“I know that wasn’t all you,” she informs him as he scoots to rest his back on the wall. “I know it was...you going a bit…”

“Insane,” he offers. “I’m still sorry, though. I wanted to apologize and to ask...if there’s anything I can do to make you feel better.”

“I feel fine,” she promises. “That wasn’t even the worst part.”

“What was the worst part?”

“Knowing you were running out and maybe getting yourself killed? Having to force you to keep going in that machine?” She phrases it like a  _duh_ question — like how could he not get this at all.

“I had to go,” he informs her.

“I know.”

“You wouldn’t have —”

“Yes, I would have. You know I would have.” She rolls her eyes at herself, as though she’s questioning her own sanity, and Coulson has to smile.

“You’re right. You would have gone with me if I had asked. I knew that and I couldn’t let it happen.”

“Why?”

“It wasn’t safe.” He swallows and frowns at her. “I wanted you with me too much.”

“ _You_ wanted me with you? Or... _it_ did?”

“Both,” he answers easily before his expression darkens again. “The fact that _it_ wanted you is what scared me.”

She nods, seemingly understanding, though she glares at him fiercely.

“Don’t ever run off like that without me again. Not without backup.”

He nods, but he’s also not sure it’s a promise he can really make.

“As long as we don’t understand what this is, and your place in it, I’ll always wonder if it’s better to leave you somewhere safe.”

“Or maybe you could just listen to it when it’s telling you to keep me close.”

“That’s not what you thought earlier in Janice Robbins’s apartment.”

Skye sighs and pulls her knees up so she can rest her chin there.

“I was just scared,” she admits, as though it costs her a great deal to do so.

“I know.” He nods.

“I’m scared of finding out. I want to know, but what if it’s something awful? What if _I’m_ something awful?”

“You’re not.”

“But what if —”

“Listen to me.” His voice is hard, slightly too loud in the small room, and she twists her neck to stare at him, startled. “There is not an awful bone in your body. Whatever…” He swallows.

“Whatever I am?” Her smile is twisted and sardonic, but her lip quivers slightly, and Coulson reaches forward and grasps her hand.

“It doesn’t matter. _You_ choose who you are, Skye. You’ve always chosen who you are.”

She nods, but she looks so close to tears and all he can do is tug her closer — across the bed and into his arms.

“Skye,” he whispers against the side of her head as she burrows into his shoulder and starts to sob. “Skye.”

He just strokes her back — soft, comforting circles — as her tears slow down to tiny hiccups.

“Sorry,” she whispers into his shoulder.

“You don’t have to be sorry.”

“Do you think I should go into the machine?”

“No,” he answers instantly, before she’s even done asking.

“But it might —”

“No. We wouldn’t get any answers from that that are vital to immediate security. It’s not even worth the consideration, Skye.”

“And if it might save someone’s life? If it might help us stop my father from killing again?”

Coulson clutches her tightly to his chest and kisses the top of her head.

“I couldn’t bear it,” he admits.

“You would if I asked you to,” she tells him with certainty, pulling back to look him in the eye.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I did it for you.”

Coulson swallows back the urge to hug her back to his chest again, and nods.

“You did that because I asked you to.”

“And it sucked.” She stresses _sucked_ , raw emotion in her voice letting on how horrible it had been.

He nods.

“I’m sorry.” Except he’s not really, and the look on her face says she knows it. “It had to be you,” he explains, shrugs. “It had to be done, and it had to be you.”

“Why did it have to be me?”

“You…” He pauses, closes his eyes for a long moment. “You’re connected to the GH-325.” She nods. “But you’re also connected to...me.”

“And that matters?”

“Yes. You called me out of it before.”

“Before, May turned off the machine and —”

“No. It was you. It was your voice. I...I was in agony. And then you…”

“I saved you?”

Her voice is playful, a smile breaking across her face, but Coulson’s face is deadly serious.

“In every possible way.”

Skye’s smile drops away, and she slowly brings her right hand up to rest on his cheek.

“You’re okay now?”

“For now,” he agrees.

Skye’s eyes are still wet, slightly red, but it makes them seem so much _deeper_ , like he could fall into them.

He’s not sure who kisses whom, except that one minute they are not kissing and then the next they are. It’s awkward at first as Skye scrambles on his lap, turning to straddle him; their teeth knock together and she’s still sniffly from crying and he gropes at her too hard — frustrated to have her out of his arms for even a moment.

And then she settles against him. He can feel the heat between her thighs as she wraps her legs around him, as their lips fit together, as her tongue slips into his mouth and brushes against his. Coulson groans into her mouth and presses her lower body against his, feeling the heat at the center of her against his cock. His fist tangles in her hair, forcing her closer, and she grunts out a noise that might be pain.

His need to _have_ her is almost frightening, and he pulls back in an attempt to find a thread of control. She follows him, though, her mouth demanding as she presses her whole body against his. He doesn’t find anything like control; loses even more of it as they collapse onto her bed.

It’s too fast after that. Too eager and too hard and entirely too fast. He’s conscious of it only in frantic glimpses — like gasps of air taken as he drowns.

The taste of her skin as he wraps his lips around a nipple. The feel of her hand wrapping around his cock. The wetness between her legs and the way she begs for more when he pushes one finger inside. The strength of her legs as she forces him to roll over so she can ride him. The sound of her voice calling his name as she comes.

It’s when he follows her, when their eyes lock through the ecstasy of the moment, that he finally feels like he can breathe again.

“Oh,” Skye sighs and falls forward, catching herself on her hands so that her face hovers over his, so that her eyes stare directly into his. He can see the gooseflesh covering her body, can feel her still clenching around his cock, muscle spasms that extend his own orgasm, too. It’s almost too much.

“Skye,” he whispers her name, watches her own mouth move as she brings her forehead down to touch his.

He isn’t sure how long they stay like that — locked together, her forehead resting on his — before she finally slides off of him and collapses on the bed.

Coulson immediately rolls towards her so he can get his hands back on her — fingertips and palms and the blunt edges of his nails all trace her skin.

Skye slips a hand behind his neck and pulls him over her to kiss him, lazy and easy and relaxed in the aftermath.

“That was intense,” she whispers against his lips.

“Yes. But good intense?” His statement becomes a question as he pulls back to try to gauge her face.

She just smiles at him, sated and pleased, and Coulson leans in to kiss her again.

“Whatever we find…”

“We’ll do it together?” She finishes for him, and he smiles.

“Yes. And whatever it is, I’ll still…” He cuts himself off, frustrated that he can’t just say it. “It won’t change how I feel about you.”

The words hit her hard, and her lip quivers slightly again.

“Promise?”

“Yes, I —”

“Even if...even if it’s worse than we’ve imagined?”

“I promise,” he repeats, and Skye nods. "There's nothing that’s going to scare me away. And I’m not going to let anyone take you unless you want to go." He kisses her again, lips then forehead, before he rests his head on the bed next to hers. 

He yawns, then, loud and jaw-cracking and deep so that his whole body shudders.

“When’s the last time you slept, anyways?” Her voice is soft, deflecting her personal worries onto him in a way that makes him feel warm.

“I don’t know,” he answers honestly.

Skye rolls them, using strong legs and strong arms, until she’s spooned up behind him — her arms warm and comforting around his body.

“Sleep.”

“Skye,” he sighs her name.

“Shh, Phil. Sleep.”

He drifts to sleep easily in the safety of Skye’s arms, a deep uninterrupted sleep for the first time in so many months.

 


End file.
